Here are two musically classy Christmas albums that are fun, tongue-in-cheek, tender and not your usual lazy schlock. See The Independent and OffBeat.
Dram>Choc>Dram>Puff
Despite recent rumblings in the chocolate world here is a fantastic pairing. All that is needed to make an outrageously quailic threesome is a Cohiba Behike 52. Dram>Choc>Dram>Puff — repeat. The vulgarity and noise of the world guaranteed to be silenced.
John Kennedy Toole
Doff of the hat to Cory MacLauchlin for reminding me of another great New Orleanian’s birth.
James Booker
Walker Percy: Daylight and Dark
I want to bring your attention to this Kickstarter project. Watch the 6 minute project pitch and donate what you can to this important work and check out the donor incentives. As you will see this project is on the verge of fruition and will be published to commemorate the centenary of Percy’s birth. The project is endorsed by no less than Walter Isaacson and has the Percy family backing.
Walker Percy Wednesday 63
Forty-five. It is strange how little one changes. The psychologists are all wrong about puberty. Puberty changes nothing. This morning I woke with exactly the same cosmic sexual-religious longing I woke with when I was ten years old. Nothing changes but accidentals: your toes rotate, showing more skin. Every molecule in your body has been replaced but you are exactly the same.
The scientists are wrong: man is not his own juices but a vortex, a traveling suck in his juices.
Ellen pats some Hell-for-Leather on me.
“How do you like it, Chief?”
“Very much,” I say, eyes watering with cloves.
Ellen, though she is a strict churchgoer and a moral girl, does not believe in God. Rather does she believe in the Golden Rule and in doing right. On the whole she is embarrassed by the God business. But she does right. She doesn’t need God. What does God have to do with being honest, hard-working, chaste, upright, unselfish, etcetera. I on the other hand believe in God, the Jews, Christ, the whole business. Yet I don’t do right. I am a Renaissance pope, an immoral believer. Between the two of us we might have saved Christianity. Instead we lost it.
. . .
I recall my uncle’s advice: guard against the sadness of hubris. How to do that? By going to the Little Napoleon and having a drink with Leroy Ledbetter.
. . .
“For the first time the behavioral sciences have a tool for dealing with the heretofore immeasurable and intangible stresses that are rending the national fabric.”
“Yes.”
“Dr. More.” Again Art stands up, not to shake hands again I hope, no, but again there is the heavy mollified protein smell.
“Yes?”
“We’re prepared to fund an interdisciplinary task force and implement a crash program that will put a MOQUOL in the hands of every physician and social scientist in the U.S. within one year’s time.”
“You are?” Why don’t I feel excited? My eyes don’t blink.
“As you know better than I, your MOQUOL has a multilevel capacity. It is operative at behavioral, political, and philosophical levels. I would even go so far as to say this, Doc—” Art pauses to hawk phlegm and adjust his crotch with an expert complicated pat.
Scott Billington: producer par excellence
How do you know when a song is finished?
This is the key question for a producer — the answer lies with the idea that may best be described as an “intimation,” something that only comes with a deep understanding of a given tradition. Listen to this chat with Scott Billington arguably one of the best recording producers ever — and on a tight budget. Who else could have coped with Booker and Gatemouth? It’s really fascinating hearing his insights into Charlie Rich and Zydeco music. Moreover, his understanding of the role of music as a human activity is nothing less than philosophical. Check out the playlist and get ordering from the Louisiana Music Factory. We are indebted to people such as Alan Lomax and Scott Billington.
Adam Smith “interview”
Surfing Uncertainty: Prediction, Action, and the Embodied Mind
Andy Clark guest-blogging in support of his new book. Stay tuned for Evan Thompson’s review in The Journal of Mind and Behavior.
Isle of Jura Superstition
As ever, a most thoughtful assessment from Jason Debly. As an Islay “peathead” myself, I don’t think that this would disappoint others. Jason, I notice, has also weighed in on the recent Crown Royal kerfuffle which I mentioned here.
